Florida Atlantic University wins $100K journalism grant
Florida Atlantic University's , news content partner with WLRN, will be getting a $100,000 grant from Press Forward, a national philanthropic initiative "to close persistent coverage gaps" in local is one of 205 newsroom recipients selected from a total of 931 proposals from newsrooms with annual budgets of less than $1 a community journalism initiative in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies within the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters , and was launched in September 2023 by Ilene Prusher, senior instructor of multimedia journalism. Article by MediaLab s has reached as many as 25 million people in is first year. It has content partnerships with WLRN, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Palm Beach Post.
"This grant will help us expand our project and fill crucial gaps in local coverage," said Prusher, digital director of "We're engaging diverse students in developing advanced media skills while reporting valuable stories that our media partners often lack resources to cover."
"Guided by FAU journalism faculty members, MediaLab students have published outstanding coverage of environmental issues, immigration and health policy, and their insightful coverage can help strengthen knowledge of important issues in our local communities," said Carol Bishop Mills, Ph.D., associate dean of faculty success in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and lead author of the grant.
"These newsrooms are proof that we are seeing a moment of transformation, where new and longstanding are stepping up to create a new story for local news," said Dale R. Anglin, Director, Press Forward, in a statement . "Each newsroom plays a vital public service role in its community – providing trustworthy local news and information in places where no other sources may exist. Independent newsrooms need community support to survive. We hope that more people will subscribe and donate to them."
Press Forward is investing more than $500 million in local newsrooms, with the aim of closing gaps in journalism coverage, advancing public policies that expand access to local news, and scaling the infrastructure that the sector needs to thrive. When it launched just over a year ago, a coalition of 22 funders came together to pledge more than $500 million to revitalize local news. Now, there are 62 funders in the coalition, including local partners such as the Miami Foundation.
MediaLab will host an event marking its one-year anniversary near the end of October to celebrate its year of success.
"Guided by FAU journalism faculty members, MediaLab students have published outstanding coverage of environmental issues, immigration and health policy, and their insightful coverage can help strengthen knowledge of important issues in our local communities," said Carol Bishop Mills, Ph.D., associate dean of faculty success in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and lead author of the grant.
